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Examines the applicability of total quality management (TQM) to education and summarizes its underlying theory and principles. Discusses the relationship between quality assurance and total quality management with reference to ISO 9000. Aligns educational institutions with a service organization model and outlines the resultant implications for the development of a TQM initiative. These issues include the expansion of the internal supplier/customer concept, a greater focus on the marketplace, the identification of customers, the pursuit of continuous improvement and the strengthening of feedback linkages from the environment. Mentions potential problems with the adoption of such service sector models in the context of scholarship, individuality and the team ethos, and the commercial quality terminology of “zero defects” and “right first time” thinking. Concludes that educational institutions are likely to reap significant benefits from an appropriate implementation of TQM, provided that there is considerable planning, management commitment, culture change and a long‐term perspective which goes beyond the next AGM.

The article examines the emerging paradigm of total quality management and summarises its underlying theory and principles. The relationship between quality assurance and total quality management is discussed with reference to ISO 9000. Higher education institutions are aligned with a service organisation model and the resultant implications for the development of a TQM culture are outlined. These issues include the emphasis on a team ethos, a greater focus on the marketplace, the identification of customers, the pursuit of continuous improvement and the strengthening of feedback linkages from the environment. Potential problems with the adoption of such service sector models are mentioned in the context of scholarship and the commercial quality terminology of “zero defects” and “right first time” thinking.

On 2 February 2020, 99.9 million viewers learnt about the Women's Football Alliance (WFA), the largest women's American football league in the United States, when former player Katie Sowers became the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl. In the same month, the WFA announced several corporate partnerships and a new television deal with statements that connected the support for women's American football to advancing gender equity.

This chapter examines the professionalisation of women's American football in the United States through the lens of mediated visibilities. We use the term mediated visibilities, rather than media coverage, to move beyond how journalists are writing about sport (or ‘covering’ sport) and account for the complex ways in which content about women's sport circulates across producers and platforms in the digital media environment. In particular, our analysis examines the opportunities and limitations of digital media in the process of (semi-)professionalisation of women's American football.

The WFA joined the broader ‘momentum’ of women's sport in the United States as both the league's social media platforms and the sponsors aligned their messages with cultural narratives around women's sport to invoke gender equity in promoting women's American football. Moreover, the league positioned the strategy to enhance mediated visibility the sport as an integral step in the process of (semi-)professionalisation. However, the role of the WFA's digital media platforms alone appears to be limited without substantial structural change.